Spooky experiences while researching

[aghadowey]

Years ago I was researching my relatives family for my cousin and after getting the usual vital and census records, Wills, gravestone inscriptions, etc. Noticed something rather strange. One of the ancestors had come to America from Ireland with his parents, father had died but mother lived on for many years. The date on her gravestone and death record (which matched) were several years before the next census- which included mother in son's household!
After this puzzling discovery I was in contact with the current owners of the son's farmhouse and they invited me over to see inside. Lovely old house but when we got to one of the rooms they said that 'strange' things had been noticed in that room. I asked which direction was east and this was indeed the 'east' room of the house. Husband's Will had left farm to son with provision that his widow be allowed the 'east' room of the house for her own use. Coincidence or ... 

[Malcolm33]

Years ago I was researching my relatives family for my cousin and after getting the usual vital and census records, Wills, gravestone inscriptions, etc. Noticed something rather strange. One of the ancestors had come to America from Ireland with his parents, father had died but mother lived on for many years. The date on her gravestone and death record (which matched) were several years before the next census- which included mother in son's household!
After this puzzling discovery I was in contact with the current owners of the son's farmhouse and they invited me over to see inside. Lovely old house but when we got to one of the rooms they said that 'strange' things had been noticed in that room. I asked which direction was east and this was indeed the 'east' room of the house. Husband's Will had left farm to son with provision that his widow be allowed the 'east' room of the house for her own use. Coincidence or ... 

     When the census was taken it sounds like the family were convinced that mother was still with them hence including her.    But what 'strange' things were noticed?    Had there been any movement activity?     Perhaps not as bad as what was happening at Bornowtown as described in the 1816 Rothbury Bible Census - pages 83 and 84, but items being moved around seems to be a common occurrence.

[a-l]

One day I was talking on the phone to my newly found sibling across the pond. As we spoke I 'saw' a man hanging in a barn and felt such desolation and misery that it is still indescribable.
I asked my brother if he knew who it was because I thought with talking with him it must be connected to him. He didn't know.
I started tracing that side of the family and found that the man was family and had hanged himself in a barn in 1900.

[PaulaToo]

Ouch! That is not the sort of spooky experience I would enjoy.
Poor man, and poor you, seeing him.

[Handypandy]

Well, not through researching but....

30 yrs ago, my wife and I moved from Sheffield to Wolverhampton due to my work. One night in bed my wife woke me up and asked to swap places as 'something' had just cuddled up to her. I complied, presuming that it was just a bad dream. The following day, my wife, duly spooked, went to see a vicar who said that he couldn't help but gave her the details of a local Spiritualist Church where, after a short conversation, the medium said, "You don't need me, you can already work with spirit"
That evening, I had reason to phone my parents-in-law's house back in Sheffield, my brother-in-law picked up the phone. "Is Dad there ?" I asked, "No" he replied," They've gone to see a vicar, they think the house is haunted !"
The upshot of all this, is that shortly after, we moved back to Sheffield and my wife joined a Spiritualist Church and has been going ever since. These days 'spookiness' is just a way of life and I find it difficult to be sceptical anymore.

[JAKnighton]

I visited the cemetery at Walsoken, Norfolk to see my 2x great grandfather's name on the War Memorial. It was an unusually warm, sunny day in January. We parked alongside the entrance to the cemetery and the second we walked through the gates, the temperature dropped a massive amount.

I'm not really that superstitious, in fact I barely took any notice of the temperature until my Mum pointed it out, but it's a common detail in supernatural stories that the air suddenly turns cold in the presence of a ghost!

[drhewitt]

My spookiest moment was when a volunteer Ancestry transcriber, who is not related to me at all, contacted me and gave me info on my family tree that I had been unable to find.

I mean, while it was appreciated, who does that?

[3sillydogs]

My spookiest moment was when a volunteer Ancestry transcriber, who is not related to me at all, contacted me and gave me info on my family tree that I had been unable to find.

I mean, while it was appreciated, who does that?

Guilty

But they are usually folk that I know from RC and know what families they are researching.....